


The Best-Laid Plan

by Cerylia



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-13
Updated: 2014-09-13
Packaged: 2018-02-17 07:13:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2301032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerylia/pseuds/Cerylia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blackwall plans how to handle his Calling after the Inquisitor learns exactly what being a Grey Warden entails.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Best-Laid Plan

**Author's Note:**

> "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men  
> Gang aft agley,  
> An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,  
> For promis'd joy!"  
> \--Robert Burns, 1785

Blackwall had the entire sequence of events planned.

Tilly Trevelyan had never cared about the taint. It wasn’t something she could change—why worry about it? Instead, she had always made sure Blackwall was comfortable. There was always a bath drawn up for him when he returned to Skyhold. She brought him elfroot when he was sore. Tilly wasn’t always the most intuitive person, but when she was so near him all the time, it wasn’t difficult to pick up on how these simple things would help.

She hadn’t heard anything about going to Orzammar until Leliana had mentioned it, in passing. For a few days, Tilly was abnormally quiet. She left him behind on a mission, and even avoided him in the castle, except at night. Finally, as they rested in each other’s arms, Blackwall nestled into the crook of her neck, she worked up the courage to ask. He was just barely asleep when she squeezed him tight and mentioned the Calling. He grumbled about the disruption but didn’t mind. Not after she pressed her lips to his.

“I thought you always had bad dreams?” she asked.

“Aye, but when it’s time for my Calling, they’ll be worse.” Blackwall said.

“And then you just go to Orzammar and…that’s just barbaric!” Tilly exclaimed, rather loudly. 

“There isn’t much of an alternative. Wardens who don’t submit go mad, just like ghouls durin’ blights.”

That was when he began to lay out his plan. It would take planning and luck, but Blackwall stayed awake after his nightmares some nights. He had ample time to think then.

He wouldn’t go with her while she went out as her duties as Inquisitor, he decided, once the bad nightmares started again. He would make some excuse or another, and she would pout but leave him alone. After all, Cassandra and Iron Bull were both more than adequate protection. Then, he would leave for Orzammar. He would have a good head start on her before she returned to Skyhold. Ideally, if he travelled by foot, and she by horse, they would meet in the great dwarven city. They could share their goodbyes, and he would battle dark spawn one last time. 

The adrenaline rush of seeing him just before he was about to leave would stifle whatever tears she had. She wouldn’t put the Inquisition on hold just for him—at least, not for long. She wouldn’t have to know he was only waiting in Orzammar just for her goodbye. And most importantly, Tilly wouldn’t waste her time trying to talk him out of it or searching for other solutions. It would be a quick, clean break. It was for the best.

But this was not at all according to plan.

It didn’t seem like the end of the Inquisition would ever come, but it did. And instead of the victory celebration that Josephine had planned, Vivienne and Varric were putting the last pieces of wood on the funeral pyre. Iron Bull easily lifted Tilly’s lifeless body to the top. Even though she was not at all a sister of the Chantry, Leliana led the prayers. Dorian didn’t speak, but mouthed along with others. He looked remarkably disheveled—his outfit didn’t even match. Sera sat on the wall, carefully glancing around the courtyard for Cole. He hadn’t been seen since the end of the Inquisition, since Tilly’s death. Solas’ attention was on Tilly. He had talked in previous days about how he had never seen a funeral pyre, and how strange it was that humans burn their dead. It had irritated Cullen to no end, but at last they were both silent. 

It felt like a lifetime before Leliana finished speaking. Cassandra held a lit torch and put it to the pyre. Within a few minutes, the remnants of his plans were devoured in flames.


End file.
